Congregational Life and Outreach Committee Minutes

Tuesday, May 12, 2009  7:00 p.m.

MINUTES

Present:  Carissa Brealey, Cindy Tafoya, Larry Felhauer, Pat Felhauer, Donna Mathis, Kathy Story, Norm Story

 Meeting opened and closed in prayer.

 1.      Graduation Sunday

a.       Gifts have not yet been purchased.  Carissa was waiting on a catalogue of Christian gifts from Tracy and forgot to follow up in time to place an order.  We will shop for gifts locally.  Pat suggested the Christian bookstore for inspirational books.  She volunteered to stop by there tomorrow to see what they had and make a purchase if she found a good gift item. 

b.      We have received the names of about a dozen graduates so far.  Carissa will read them during church on Sunday and present them with their gifts. 

c.       Carissa will double check with Tracy about picking up the cake for fellowship hour on Sunday.  Kathy suggested we also pick up a can of mixed nuts and serve a sherbet punch.  She offered to shop for and make the punch on Sunday.

2.      Camping trip, 5/30

a.       Larry will make an announcement this Sunday about the camping trip, and will work up something to put in the bulletin and Good News.  Carissa will create a map to include in next Sunday’s bulletin that includes directions to Aguirre Springs and more details about the event.

b.      CL&O will provide hot dogs, chips and s’mores fixings.  Carissa will organize some games.

3.      Other summer events

a.       As of yet, CL&O does not have any summer events planned after the camping trip.  We discussed a few ideas, including a Diablos game outing and summer movies.  We decided to continue summer movies but forgo the baseball game.  Carissa will look for an NMSU game schedule and we can revisit the idea at the next meeting to see if an alternative closer to home might be possible.

b.      We selected dates for the summer movies:  6/14, 7/12, and 8/2.  This is less than the number of events hosted last year, but the calendar is crowded with non-CL&O activities that we don’t want to overlap.  Last year’s movie nights were not well attended, but were also not well advertised or organized.  This year we will be more proactive about getting the word out about the events.

4.      Fellowship hour

a.       Apparently fellowship hour fell through the cracks last Sunday.  Donna said she had given the list/schedule to Tracy at Tracy’s request, and that Tracy had planned to reorganize it and start sending out the notifications. 

b.      Donna will speak with her about it to see what’s been done, and she will take responsibility again for the schedule and notifications.

5.      Outreach

a.       Carissa talked to the committee about shifting focus to more heavily emphasize outreach.  Our social events are important for keeping members, but our committee has not been very proactive about actively drawing in new members.  Ideas on how to do this?

b.      Larry and Pat both felt that we should be investing more heavily in advertising.  It seems to be successful for other churches.  We need to get our name out there for people to see.

c.       We also need to overhaul the website.  This has been in discussion for quite sometime, but so far no one knows of anyone who could redo the site and no one has done the research on hiring someone to do it for us.

d.      There is currently no young adult/families social group, and now would be a good time to establish one and help get it rolling.  Carissa has been considering starting such a group for some time and feels this summer would be a good time to kick it off.  She will work on formulating a plan/advertisement/event and bring it to the next committee meeting for discussion.

6.      Past events

a.       Kathy brought to our attention that we don’t usually discuss our recent events, and we should so the pros and cons are documented for later years.

b.      Everyone agreed the hymn sing was a great success, though the hymn suggestion list was not well executed and confused a lot of people.  Also, we should have made an announcement and advertised earlier.

c.       The Easter egg hunt did not go off very well.  Carissa and Cindy were both present when the hunt started, and they both felt the issue was not having a clearly defined gathering area to keep kids from starting early.  Also, they didn’t believe the high schoolers who were running the event had coordinated who would give the starting signal or roughly when it would be.  The result was that a few kids got started early, before church service let out, and once a few kids were out looking for eggs, all the others who were waiting joined in.  Consequently, kids who attended service missed all the eggs.  Next year we will define a gathering area and coordinate ground rules with the high schoolers to make sure things don’t get started too early.

7.      Tracy

a.       Norm brought to the committee’s attention that Tracy will be leaving the church shortly and is in the process of putting together a list of summer events she has planned.  It will be up to CL&O to decide whether or not to follow through with these events.

b.      We will also need to figure out who will take over the Good News newsletter.  Linda will be putting out a bare-bones version in the interim, but CL&O needs to find a permanent organizer.

 Submitted by Carissa Brealey

April 22, 2009

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